Getting Ready For Winter

Hi All,
So this morning I started getting the garden ready for winter.

I dug out those plants that I think aren't going to survive outdoors.
Divided them into 3 groups depending on what they were:

1) Brought indoors (The Mrs is NOT happy with me)
2) Into the greenhouse
3) The garage (gets quite cold, but a few degrees warmer than outdoors, and dry)

I do have a problem with some Alocasias and red bananas. They are quite big. Ideally I would like to bring them indoors, but they will take up too much space.
Will they be ok in the garage?
Or should I make some sort of plan to get them indoors??

 

Alocasias will be ok in the garage.. I actually put mine in a sheltered corner of the garden and they came through evergreen last year, so the garage should work. Bananas should also be ok in the garage. Can you heat the garage at all?

 

I can't really justify the heating costs for 3 plants.

 

true, I guess... well the garage should hold enough heat. Maybe you could get a few large candles and light them, it might work if it's a small space?

 

sirius I`m doing my ensete next week or waiting for the first few light frost , need them to start to ibernate , I usually look at other plants before doing the bananas and alocasia , when my wisteria start to lose all the leaves is time for them as well.
look at the video , mire are going in the unheated greenhouse so garage should be ok.




and for the alocasia , I plant them in small pot and try to keep them alive in the cold . but you can do this.

 

Sal,

I am going away on business from Thursday for 10 days.
So if i didn't bring them in today, it would be at least 2 weeks time before i could. Didn't want to take a chance.

 

The garage is next to the house, so hopefully there will be enough heat through the connecting wall.

 

I rekon no more then 2 weeks and I will have to do that as well , no point leaving them outdoor , they will not grow and as the evening is wet and dark no point of keeping the outdoor .
Will post few pictures when I will do mine.

 

I think its a balancing act ... but I aim to leave mine out for as long as possible. Less time indoors to become soft and bugs to become a nuisance (particularly if they have been outside during cool weather for long enough that the bugs on them have died - I hope!

However, things like Bananas are harder to dry out the later in the year they are brought in.

I'm new to Alocasias but my understanding is that they aren't easy :( and that keeping them growing can be a better route than trying to get them out of dormancy in the Spring.

Heated [e.g. reptile] mat in the garage perhaps to provide some warmth for the soil; and then a CFL bulb above them [on a timer - 8 hours should be enough] to provide enough light to keep them on tick-over

Not sure about red bananas - presumably they are Musa? If Ensete cutting all the leaves off and storing then dry should be fine (but you do have to dry them out otherwise they will rot if stored like that). I think Musa needs to be given just enough water to keep it going.

Or flog them on eBay and buy new next Spring?

 

Kristen , more then everything , I`m waiting for a nice dry day , to do the bananas and like you say as long as possible , looking at the weather this week should be nice but expected frost from next week .
Alocasia, the true species I`m using are really though plants , mine are going in the greenhouse and they actually stay alive them self .

 

Weather looking cold by end of week, so I'm planning to "dismantle" the Tropic Garden Wed/Thursday ... but wet all week so no opportunity to dry them until they are in the conservatory - along with the summer cover for the table - going to have to put both heat and de-humidifier in the Conservatory to get things dry I reckon !!

 

I moved mine under cover in the greenhouse last week; I could have left them out longer as the weather went mild afterwards for a couple of days but at least its kept the rain off them and they're not too wet.

I haven't cut the Ensete banana back yet though, I've read about the above winter storage tips but also read about removing most of the leaves and cutting the roots back by half to get it in a smaller pot of dry compost to sort of keep it semi-dormant. Before putting in the pot though it did suggest leaving it tip over to let the moisture from the cuts to run out...So I'm undecided at the moment..

With my Cannas I'm hoping they'll dry out and go dormant naturally, only then will I cut them back...

I have a few of those moisture traps in the greenhouse too, the type with crystals in and they're working a treat, removing excess moisture..

 

If you have only have a little space indoors / loft / garage then you have to dry outside; in that case cut off the leaves, turn upside down to let the water drain out, needs to be a sunny day!, and then bring in before it gets wet again. Can stand on newspaper, indoors, to try to "wick" the water out of it. If you have to bring it in whilst its raining, say, (because frost forecast "tonight") then you'll have to dry it out with a fan heater, on low heat setting, blowing at the plant from a reasonable distance.

If the plant is of a decent size it can then be stored "dry" - as they do in Ethiopia. Cut off all roots, dry as best you can (it will still be very wet inside, that's what it will live off , just dry the surface, leaf joints, so there is no water / wet on cut surfaces (including getting the next 1/2" or so of plant material beyond the cut to dry out) - the aim being to reduce the ways in which Rot can set in.

For greenhouse then you can stand (if not too tall!) in the greenhouse with the leaves on. The leaves will get the plant to dry out more quickly, as they will suck up water from the plant. You can then cut the leaves off later and dry-store.

For smaller plants, or taller conservatories , and where some heat available over winter, you can grow on. Minimal water, unless plenty of warmth (but then Light is likely to be insufficient). Cold (0C-5C) and wet feet will encourage rot.

If stored dry then in Spring the plant will have no roots. Be very frugal with water until roots well developed or it will rot. Watering only from bottom will help. Plant will start into growth "dry", so patience is all that is required

Get it outside (once growign in Spring) whenever you can, otherwise the new leaves will develop "soft" and will all drop off the moment you then plant it out - I don't think you can properly harden-off those leaves, once formed, so better that they form outside (this becomes a problem when the plant is too big to wheel in/out daily of course - so take you pick then - at that stage it will probably be too tall, once leaves unroll, to be indoors, so it will probably have to be outside and "fleeced" on frosty nights)

Do NOT store on its side / upside down (for drying). New "rollers" will try to come out through the side of the plant and you'll be in a right mess. Upside down for just a few hours, maybe a couple of days, is the max. (Having said that I believe in America they store them in the crawl-space under their houses, but I have also read of people have new rollers appear in the Spring that have become "disorientated" whilst starting to develop during the winter storage ... on balance store "upright" if at all possible)

I chucked mine in a plastic tray (mesh-type, not solid) last Winter in the frost-free conservatory with whatever soil was attached to their roots. I watered periodically as they didn't properly go dormant. They were fine, so don't think moisture quite so critical for them. I suppose I was treating them much the same as if I had left them in the ground except no sodden-wet&cold-feet, only "Moist", and temperature was never below 0C

 

Sal - those videos are excellent - many thanks. Is there any way of saving a video like that?

Having visited my local GC, which only sells yellow sulphur, I have had a Google and its clear there is no difference between yellow and green sulphur, except possibly that one is finer than the other.

The EU says that we are no longer allowed to use sulphur as an anti-bacterial agent, but we may still use it to make soil more acidic. So I will be following Sal's video instructions, and will make my Ensete roots a bit more acidic.

 

Not sure that YouTube provide that "ability". One suggestion: click-through the Video to get to see it on YouTube itself, and from there Subscribe to the Presenter's video feed - or just save his YouTube page, or one of his videos, in your Browser's favourites.

The Presenter, YorkshireKris, is a frequent and knowledgeable contributor on the Hardy Tropicals web site, and his other videos will probably be of interest to you - plus he seems to enjoy making them, so likely to be more in the future - hence the suggestions to bookmark his "feed" rather than a specific video.